Council Meetings - Much improvement needed! (Rochdale Liberal Democrats)

Rochdale Liberal Democrats <info@rochdalelibdems.org.uk>

Council Meetings - Much improvement needed!

October 12, 2006 12:00 AM

Councillor Taylor with Peter Rush and Sir Menzies Campbell

Speaking about last night's Council Meeting. Council Leader Alan Taylor said,

"It is quite obvious that we need to look at how meetings are conducted. There was a very simple reason why the Council Meeting overran - There were 6 Notice of Motions and the amendments that came with them. The Liberal Democrats have long understood the importance of Notices of Motion to shape Council Policy and the difference with this meeting was that for a change - Labour and the Conservatives put three in too. The personal attacks from all sides of this chamber must stop - we need to concentrate on Council Policy.

I am afraid this meeting was not a good advertisement for politics in the Borough. The Liberal Democrat Group will not apologise though to anyone about asking questions, dialogue in the Council is vital and some of the issues discussed were hugely important to this Borough. These included the regeneration of the Town Centre, Libraries, the anti-social use of fireworks, flooding in Bamford and Heywood, the budget, the future of Touchstone's Café and many more. Liberal Democrat Councillors have every right to questions the Cabinet in a Public Meeting. One minute the opposition accuse us of carrying out or job in secret and then question why we are asking questions in public. They are not consistent in their approach and they need to look at themselves. Yes, Councillors approach me about issues and quite rightly - it is one thing answering questions in my office and another answering questions in a Public Meeting. I thank the Liberal Democrat Councillors for taking an active role in Council Meetings and hope this continues."